1856, "pertaining to the race in southern India or the languages spoken by them" (Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese, Malayalam, etc.), from Sanskrit Dravidah, name of a region in southern India, + -ian.
Entries linking to dravidian
-ian
variant of suffix -an (q.v.), with connective -i-. From Latin -ianus, in which the -i- originally was from the stem of the word being attached but later came to be felt as connective. In Middle English frequently it was -ien, via French.
Tamil
Dravidian people and language of southern India, 1734, from Pali Damila, from Sanskrit Dramila, variant of Dravida (see Dravidian).